MAIC established a
Book Review Committee to give our visitors and members informed choices and
sources for books,
audio tapes and CD's and other learning tools. By design, not all members of
the committee are editors, professional writers and teachers. They come from
many walks of life and truly represent the 'common folk' reader.

Voice of the Hawk Elder

by Edna Gordon, edited by Harvey Arden

"This book is dedicated to my People,
the Seneca Nation, to our kindred Peoples of the Haudenoshaunee, or Six Nations
Iroquois Confederacy, to all the Indian Nations of Great Turtle Island, and to
all other Indigenous Peoples around this Mother Earth. I send it out like an
arrow of love from my heart to YOUR hearts!

If other folks want to read it too, why, thatís
fine by me. Might be you even learn something! This book is FULL of secrets for
those who understand'm! But always remember, the BIGGEST secret is Creation
itself!

YES, THIS IS MY VOICE. These are my words. My good
friend Harvey [Arden] has helped me sort and arrange them, like heís done for
lots of good people over the years, even back when he worked at National
Geographic. He fixes my spelling and spruces up my grammar here and there,
though I tell him, not too much, Harvey! I want folks to know who I am and how I
really talk and what Iím really like. Donít make me some saintly old lady come
down from Heaven on a moonbeam spoutiní high-flown words.

Me, Iím just me, Grandma Edna Gordon, Hawk Clan
Elder of the Seneca Nation, Six Nations Iroquois. I just turned 85, and am tryiní
my darndest to be a good person. Sometimes I succeed, but donít stay around me
when I get mad! Iím a raging hawk.

Peopleímselves arenít holy. But what they do can
be holy. Living a holy life, thatís what lifeís for. Helping others, fighting
injustice, standing up for the Peopleóthose are holy things to do. But always
be sure to remember, it ainít you yourself whoís holy. People are just people.
If Godíd wantedím to be holy, heíd have givením wings and setím up on a cloud
somewhere playiní a big gold harp.

This book
delves into recent discoveries of previously unrecorded Solstice, Equinox, and
Cross Quarter Markers both petroglyph and horizon markers in Southwest Utah.
Also included are the first ever general guideline for identifying Solstice and
Equinox markers.

How often do you look at a
calendar or in other ways confirm the date?Well, the Anasazi's preoccupation with the Sun should
come as no surprise! Celestial event recording stone &
horizon markers, including petroglyphs & pictographs, have
been recognized around the world for a long time.However, in 1977 when Anna Sofaer discovered an
Anasazi "sun dagger" solstice marker at Fajada Butte in
Chaco Canyon,
New Mexico, interest in Native American
Solstice markers in the
United States skyrocketed!

When I moved to SW
Utah in 2001 I discovered an exciting Summer
Solstice Marker which involves 3 different shafts of light.This could be the most thrilling Solstice Marker yet
discovered in the United
States. The Anasazi of SW Utah (known as
the Virgin River Anasazi, and more recently as Ancestral
Puebloans) have left an exciting trail of bread crumbs which
I have been following for the last 5 years.

"In the last 20
years, archaeologists and anthropologists equipped with new scientific
techniques have made far-reaching discoveries about the Americas. For
example, Indians did not cross the Bering Strait 12,000 years ago, as most
of us learned in school. They were already here. Their numbers were vast,
not few. And instead of living lightly on the land, they managed it
beautifully and left behind an enormous ecological legacy. In this riveting,
accessible work of science, Charles Mann takes us on an journey of
scientific exploration. We learn that the Indian development of modern corn
was one of the most complex feats of genetic engineering ever performed.
That the Great Plains are a third smaller today than they were in 1700
because the Indians who maintained them by burning died. And that the Amazon
rain forest may be largely a human artifact. Compelling and eye-opening,
this work will vastly alter our understanding of our history and lands."
By Peter Johnson.

Prison
Writings is an amazing book. Tears dropped on page after riveting page of this
tragic story. The book is an emotional roller coaster carving
a deep and lasting impression in the mind, heart and soul. Peltier's
life-wise words provide many good lessons and will become a classic in the
annals of social-injustice. Well
worth its price many times over.

Review
by Lee Standing Bear Moore

Other
Reviews

"This
book takes the reader on an emotional and spiritual journey as Leonard Peltier's
surprisingly hopeful reflections make the terrible injustice of his imprisonment
for twenty-four years even more difficult to accept."

Wilma
Mankiller, Former chief of the Cherokee Nation and author of Mankiller

"A
deeply moving and very disturbing story of a gross miscarriage of justice and an
eloquent cri de couer of Native Americans for redress and to be regarded as
human beings with inalienable rights guaranteed under the United States
Constitution, like any other citizens. We pray that is does not fall on
deaf hears. America owes it to herself."

Dancing with God provides an emotionally wrenching account of modern-day
encounters with the transcendent. Written in the voices of a dozen extraordinary
people who have had direct contact with a spiritual other-be it voices from the
dead, near-death experiences, or encounters with the devil- this book, in the
tradition of Conversations with God, is an immensely powerful text, brimming
with the stories of awakenings and messianic visions, for understanding the
spiritual condition of our nation.

Steve Wall, his camera and van in tow, has traveled across the country-and
particularly through the South-in search of a God that may lie buried at the
bottom of a trout-fishing river. While he has already published some of his
findings, his three previous books all focused on Native American beliefs and
wisdom.

Dancing with God builds on his previous vision, but in strikingly new venues,
and searches for the meaning of God in hamlets and rural towns spread out across
the nation, offering a varied and representative chorus of American voices. The
story that emerges from this chorus is ultimately one of great hope. In his
travels through America's great hidden subcultures, Steve Wall has discovered a
religion and charismatic faith born of unimaginable experiences that defy mere
mortal logic. This extraordinary account of his interviews and encounters is
uniquely successful in translating the wordlessness of transcendent experience
into a moving account easily grasped and identified with by even the most
unbelieving reader.

An accomplished photographer, Wall complements his stories with dozens of
engaging photographs that capture the essence of the people and towns he visits.
Sometimes beautiful, sometimes hauntingly simple, the images are all poignant
portraits of the realities he has encountered in his travels.

At the roof of his stories and photographs is a refusal to concede to a commonly
held belief that divine inspiration is an archaic myth that has been rendered
obsolete in a spiritually shallow modernity. Combining the force of Wall's
writing with the magnificence of his photographs, Dancing with God is a journey
that no reader will soon forget.

The
authors are a rare
combination of highly respected anthropologist and riveting storyteller.This book is the first in a series and its time span ranges
from the first people in
North America to the Mississippian mound builders. The book is filled with rich textures of
the everyday fabric of pre-history American Indian life.

People of the Wolf
was rigorously researched, documented and reviewed
by experts in the related fields. The writers weave the details of
traditional stories, beliefs, rituals, clothing, tools, and foods to form a
fascinating context for the human experiences of the characters. A very
plausible description of the origin of the sweat lodge is one of the details I
found fascinating.

In the first story, Wolf Dreamer struggles to lead his people from a land where the
game is rapidly disappearing to a land of plenty on the other side of the
massive glacier then covering much of the continent.Along the way, he and his brother Raven Hunter fight over
Dancing Fox and contend for leadership of their people.Watch for the surprise twist at the end."

Easy to read with many
illustrations both of
healers and of artifacts.Locations of tribal areas are shown in a series of maps. The
book is rich first hand accounts of
spiritual healing intertwined with a wealth of herbal medicines, ceremonial
objects and sacred songs depicted in real-life tribal settings makes this book
extremely interesting.
The accounts of healing practices, told by various
investigators give insight into the power of the Great Mystery.The contrast between the European medical practice with its emphasis on
the physical, and the American Indian healing practices which are
spiritual and physical leaves one with a greater appreciation for our heritage and what has
been largely lost to wider humanity, and what needs urgently to be restored. William S. Lyon is a
professor of anthropology at the Center for Religious Studies at the University
of Missouri, Kansas City, and the author of Black Elk: The Sacred Ways of a
Lakota.

Review
by Colonel John 'Mountain Wind' Outler

Other
Reviews

This monumental
volume explores, explains, and honors the shamanic healing practices of Native
Americans throughout North America. From the Southwestern United States to the
Arctic Circle.

Healing traditions in Native American cultures offer a glimpse into a rich and
varied world of belief systems and spiritual practices. Covering over 350 years
of history. More than 1200 entries in this book introduce readers to renowned
Native American healers and to the societies and divisions into which healers
were categorized. It describes sacred objects used in healing rituals and how
such objects were used, as well as plants used to increase healing powers. Types
of healing ceremonies are vividly pictured, and the symbolic motifs used in
healing rituals are explained along with the major concepts that formed the many
diverse Native American healing traditions. Major scholars of native American
healing are introduced, complete with firsthand accounts of their experiences.
Entries include:

Helika, the form of supernatural power used by Kwakiutl Shamans for curing.
Naitulgai, the Wailaki dream doctors who cured by singing healing songs shown to
them in dreams. Aenichit, a powerful Clayoquot Shaman who healed the sick and
was known to lift liquid water out of a bucket as though it were frozen.

Designed as an easy to use, comprehensive synthesis of centuries of study, with
maps, a detailed subject index, an extensive bibliography, and cross-references,
this book will fascinate anyone interested in Native American culture and
heritage."

This
book is a quest for the knowledge of healers, women tribal leaders, wise men and
sorcerers and spiritual leaders from thirteen American Indian
tribes. Wall's own photographs bring to life the interesting and
sometimes stunning accounts of indigenous spirituality.

Shadowcatchers
provides many insights into the everyday life of modern Indian healers and
glimpses at the frailty and strengths of indigenous life today. The reader
is given a rare opportunity to learn how the spiritual leaders view life, man's
destiny and the Creator.

Walls'
easy style of writing and respectful treatment of the subject makes this book
very enjoyable reading.

"In
this luminous story, two journalists from National Geographic on
assignment in Indian Country cross an invisible boundary between two worlds, two
different visions of reality - and find their lives transformed. In
a stunning and probing narrative - part adventure tale, part reflection and
epiphany - the authors of Wisdomkeepers embark on a dramatic
"spiritual journey into the living wisdom of Native American spiritual
leaders.

When,
nearly twenty years ago, a darkly enigmatic Cherokee herbalist approached Harvey
Arden and Steve Wall with the proposition that they join him in a study of the
lives, wisdom and spiritual practices of Native America's fast-disappearing
"Old Ones," the veteran writer and photographer found themselves
thrust, despite their own hard-nosed skepticism, onto a mystic "path of the
Wisdomkeepers."

After
receiving "signs" foretold by the Cherokee, they set off on a journey
of spiritual discovery through another world, call Great Turtle Island, where
the Old Ones - the Wisdomkeepers of aboriginal culture in North America -
bestowed them piece by surprising piece a set of "rules for being
human" called "Original Instructions."

Arden
and Wall eventually left the Geographic careers and journalism
altogether, and in 1990 produced an interim report on their spirit journey,
their now-classic international bestseller Wisdomkeepers: Meeting with Native
American Spiritual Elders. In that book they recalled, "We went
out two journalists after a good story. We came back two 'runners' from
another world, carrying an urgent message from the Wisdomkeepers. This
book is that message."

Now,
in Travels in a Stone Canoe, that message is further deepened and elaborated as
the authors reveal the intensely personal story behind - and beyond - their
journey to the Wisdomkeepers. A final, incandescent chapter,
"Original Instructions," sums up the transformation and highly
practical wisdom they found." Review
by John Nahoma

Other
Reviews

"Travels
in a Stone Canoe is even better than Wisdomkeepers. Harvey Arden and Steve
Wall capture and interpret the true Native American philosophy of life - a life
that is real, a life that we have lived for thousands of years. Travels in
a Stone Canoe is a gift to future generations. I strongly recommend
it."

-
Leonard Peltier

"I
had enjoyed Arden and Wall's Wisdomkeepers, so something else by these two, I
thought, would be just as good. Travels in a Stone Canoe, however, exceeds
my expectations. It's not just another book by whites about 'the poor'
Indians. It's almost a reversal work - as if it were the story of two
whites by Indians! Their trip took me along with them. I wished I
were on the Stone Canoe myself." -
Dennis Banks

Arden
is an excellent writer and presents the great words native American spiritual
leader Mathew King in a logical way to bring about better understanding of
King's touching and powerful message. Arden is the co-author of the
classic work, Wisdomkeepers.

The
Noble Red Man is not really a biography of Mathew King's remarkable life,
but tells the deeply moving story of one man's faith and determination in
dealing with a new challenges in Indian Country in traditional ways.

The
Noble Red Man is about balancing traditional ways with the pressures of
modern society. It is a book about finding inner strength and peace during
times of great turmoil.

I
enjoyed reading this book immensely. Unique insights into the mind and
heart of a traditional spiritual leader is a gift. King's recounting of
major events in American Indian history that occurred in the not-so-distant
past, but far from my reality at the time, was especially gratifying. I
would recommend this book to anyone interested in American Indian spirit-filled
political movements.

Review
by Pam White Dove

Other
Reviews

"A gem of Native
American wisdom in the modern idiom. Mathew King counseled a generation of
Native American activists during the "Great Indian Awakening" of
recent years. King's powerful words form a poignant Native American spiritual
testament."

Deloria's powerful and masterful
words instruct us that religious life is not dependent on institutional
religions but the interconnectedness of all things in the
cosmos.

God
is Red is a classic work on American Indian religion and spirituality.
If
read this book, you may find, as I did, that the initial chapters, while
interesting, leave you a bit disoriented. Deloria spends the initial three
chapters reviewing the white man's mistreatment of the indigenous population.
He jumps from incident to incident, recounting treaty violations, massacre,
kidnapping of children, brutality and murder, but does not develop his points.

He
displayed keen insight in particular passages, but these fascinating insights
were not really developed in any satisfying way.

Here is an
example:

"...It was at this point that
Indians became popular and the widespread and intense interest in Indians, as
seen in the fantasy literature and anthologies, seemed to indicate that
Americans wanted more from Indians than they did from other minority groups.
For ... many people the stoic, heroic, and noble Indian who had lived an idyllic
existence prior to the contact with whites seemed to hold the key to survival
and promised to provide new meanings for American life... "Although
Americans who held this view were fooling themselves, they new what they
wanted."

The
rest of the book is an engaging, often witty, and always fascinating treatise on
the failure of Christianity, and the nature of American Indian Tribal religion.
The
2nd edition of this popular book brings a new perspective and additional material from
the original, written in the early '70s.

For
example, chapter 4, entitled Time and Space, on page 66 brings us this insight,
"Monotheism, as Nathan Soderblum has pointed out, is usually the product
of the political unification of a diverse society more often that it is the
result of a revelation of ultimate reality." "... The recounting
of the event becomes its major value and both metaphysics and ethics are
believed to be contained in the description of the event."

But
this from pages 66-67 was more illuminating for me; "The structures of
their (Indian) religious traditions are taken directly from the world around
them, from their relationships with other forms of life. Context is
(unlike mainstream religion) therefore all-important for both practice and
understanding of reality."

And
if that doesn't rock your world, here is a quote from chapter 8, describing
tribal religions, "This sentiment is considerably greater than a simple
allegiance to abstract religious principles, even to principles that purport to
give instructions in cosmic salvation. It speaks of an identity so strong
as to be virtually indistinguishable from the earth itself, the human being, as
it were, completely in harmony with the mother earth and inseparable in every
way. Nowhere else on this planet do we find this attitude..."

And
from Chapter 9, "Religion for them (Indians) is an experience and they have
no reason to reduce it to the systematic thought and the elaboration of
concepts."

Deloria
states in comparison the native religions, ''...The
doctrines of the world religions, expressed in the most precise phrases and
elaborate concepts with every nuance of meaning represented by weighty tomes,
describe virtually nothing, and do not inspire anyone to do much of
anything."

"...What counted was the next life, not this one. While
this thought was comforting to people caught in the lower reaches of the
religious, social, economic, and political pyramids, these religions, appear to
be simply control measures for manipulating large populations and not a
realistic appraisal of cosmic reality."

One
final quote from page 213, which, for me, sums up the impact of the land grab by
the whites, and what they still do not understand, or want to, "The
question that emerges is whether land is a 'thing' to be used to generate income
or a homeland on which people are supposed to live in a sacred manner."

I
read this book three times. It was so absorbing, thought-provoking and
gripping it was hard to put down. This feast of written words transcribed
from taped conversations with the late Tadodaho Chief Leon Shenandoah was a
spiritual journey. Shenandoah's words are so simple, yet deeply
profound.

Review
by Rebecca A. Moore

Other
Reviews:

"Our ancestors lived in physical and spiritual communion with Mother Earth.
The Native American way of life has kept its people close to their living roots.
"To become a human being"--to rise to an expanded level of
consciousness by living on the Earth as it was intended for us to live-captures
the essence of Native American wisdom, in the words of Tadodaho Chief Leon
Shenandoah, high chief among the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy and revered
spiritual leader."

"Using tapes of
conversations made over a thirteen-year period, author Steve Wall recreates
Chief Shenandoah's message in a unique free-flowing voice. What's more, Wall
enhances the message with the dramatic photographs that have made each of his
creations, including the best selling Wisdomkeepers, not just books, but
treasures."

"The
dramatic and moving story behind -- and beyond -- the authors' decades-long
journey on the path of the Wisdomkeepers. Part adventure tale, part
reflection and epiphany, Travels in a Stone Canoe takes us on a
real-yet-mystical 'spirit-journey' into the life-transforming wisdom of Native
American spirituality. "Wisdom," the authors learn, "is not
something you believe. It's something you do." A final incandescent
chapter, 'Original Instructions for being Human,' sums up the transforming and
highly practical wisdom they found."

Book Reviews

I highly
recommend this book to anyone searching for spiritual enlightenment. The
stories are very poignant and timely and you can almost hear the voice
of the author. I was taken on a journey that was so very simple in its
complexity - respect the earth and Creator and you will find balance.
Awesome!

~Jamie-Elizabeth
Cook-Tate

George
Walking Bear's style of writing lends itself to being understood by
anyone. You can just imagine yourself sitting on the side witnessing his
stories. You get to reading and sometime you just can't put the book
down. Each story leaves you wanting more.

~P.A. Goins ďSkylarkĒ

It teaches
about life as a whole and the in-depth meaning of what karma is. There
are hidden messages for those captured by the phenomenal wisdom and
capable of opening their hearts to the highest values of the souls. This
is a rare and valuable source of information that's recommended to the
individuals who are guided to spiritual matters by their hearts.

~Red Thunder

Talking Bearís Talking Circles ó Book One is full of wonderful insights
and depth, yet it was lighthearted and easy to read. We found
George Walking Bear's writing style even and straight-forward. His
use of familiar metaphors, similes and colorful descriptions brought the
reader close to the heart of George Walking Bear. The book was
well worth the time. ~Manataka
Book Review Committee